iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

iiinova is part of the Atmosphere — an open, public network where you own your identity.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

7 followers 0 following 34 posts

Howdy! I'm the nerd who's building #Emissary - an ActivityPub server for building custom social applications on the Fediverse. My first app on this platform is a […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@benpate, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 52m

I don’t have answers, but I think we find them by trying lots of stuff, comparing notes, and iterating on the ideas that work best. For in-person events, I’d love to try handing out 5x8 cardstock flyers with a QR code, text and the Fediverse symbol. It’s too late to print those for tonight, but […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13h

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13h

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14h

@mosspiglet They are a recruiting ground for future members of the Fediverse. I challenge you to do this: Go to (name an enshittified platform here) and start posting. Bring 5 people from there back to the good place. If every Fediverse user did this, we’d be 5% of the global population […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15h

Fun fact: the words “fascist” and “fajita” share the same Latin roots. As do “nazi” and “nachos”. Which doesn’t link EVERY Mexican food to extreme right wing ideology, but it’s still pretty weird that it’s happened twice.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18h

@alisynthesis Yup. I’m working on how we can reach out more proactively. I think that’s what we must do to turn the tide on big tech. I’ll let you know when I’ve proven the concept.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18h

@rwg Yup. It’s super hard. Which is why our community needs something like ambassadors and educators to help bring them along. It means holding our noses and reaching out to often-imperfect people who aren’t doing their best to make things better. Super duper hard. But big tech does it […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18h

Today I’m finishing up another batch of voter turnout cards. Here’s the last one of the day! Send this photo to your American friends who are “on the fence” or “too busy” to show up and vote.

A flyer with the text "On Tuesday Nov. 3 AMERICA VOTES" and an eagle, and a note that reads, "Hi Ariel, Thank you for being a voter! Who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is public record. Please vote in the Tues. Nov 3 election! – Ben."

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18h

@rwg Yup. BlueSky is a step in the right direction. I’m concerned how they’re going to show a profit on the $100m investment from Bain Crypto.. but it’s still a step in the right direction. Positive reinforcement works. So whether we’re training dogs or multinational corporations, let’s reward […]

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19h

If someone asks you why they should join the Fediverse.. If any local politician, library, park, or museum asks you why they should be on the Fediverse.. www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/1… The big platforms have […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

MizKirsten @mizkirsten.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

I've just learned about People's Songs. Do you know about them yet? They - help dispatch talented musical performers to protests - distribute free sheet music of bangin' protest songs - have a podcast (free to distribute) - would love your videos of good music being performed at protests […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

@julian Here’s why that matters….

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

Felicitas Pojtinger 🌅 @pojntfx.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

We're witnessing the death of copyright's 100 year reign tyranny in real-time and gosh it is beautiful

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

@theeclecticdyslexic O really want Matrix to work, too. The concept is perfect. The execution is awful. LLMs don’t have a monopoly on awful UX. So the next time someone complains about the quality of LLM-generated software, I’m going to remind them that Matrix was created purely by humans.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

I hate Matrix chat so much. Every now and then, some nerd explains why we should all be using Matrix for group chat. It happened a lot with the E2EE project. But Matrix is what you get when you leave the engineers alone in a room for too long. Its “everything but the kitchen sink” design […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

www.valuepaths.com/activation/churn… I’ve loved useronboarding.com (now valuepaths.com) since the dotcom days. It’s always filled with common sense (if slightly sales-ey) views on how to improve onboarding, retention, and make software genuinely more useful to newbies […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Wow. #FOMOForum is real today. I want to attend at least three discussions at each #FediForum session today. I’m gonna have to jump in and out of *every* single time slot.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@JesseSkinner Wow.. that’s much better than I would have expected. I think of LLMs as over-eager interns with infinite time to read all the docs, but no common sense to know what to do with it. I wouldn’t leave an app in a Jr developers hands for 6 months without checking, and I’d have […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@deadsuperhero Noção, don’t do that.. Rule 34 suggests that will backfire spectacularly

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@JesseSkinner I would love to get a 6-month update on this, and to hear what an extended period of “vibe coding without checking the output” does to a software project. (Toots can sound more sarcastic than we intend. I don’t expect the owners experiment to go well, but I’m honestly very […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

@jaz No refunds. if someone complains _about_ IFTAS then they have to pay you £5 for complaining, then £6 to Mastodon for storing and forwarding surcharges. 😜

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

@FediverseSymbol On Bandwagon, there’s a little Bluesky butterfly, too. Check out: bandwagon.fm/@jeanvoguet

Bandwagon.fm - Jean VOGUET

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Today, I built out a per-user integration between Emissary and MailChimp. Just edit your profile settings, choose “Connections” and all new email I recognize most #Wagoneers probably won’t need this. It’s for a separate project I had to complete. But, that’s […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

New Rule: FEP-161f Swear Jar Every time someone complains about another person on the Fediverse, they have to donate $5 to IFTAS

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

I pick my work music for the day by going to Bandwagon and playing the first album that comes up on shuffle. Life is always richer for it. Today’s Bandwagon Roulette: bandwagon.fm/679889adab0b1adf832628…

Bandwagon.fm - Embracing The Illusion

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

I don’t know much about Brazilian politics, but this is a pretty strong case why everyone should own their social network — especially politicians. www.reddit.com/r/Brazil/comments/1w… If Facebook can take sides in your election […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Noted! github.com/EmissarySocial/bandwagon… @dansup @deadsuperhero

Download Songs · Issue #250 · EmissarySocial/bandwagon

Per https://mastodon.social/@dansup/117319822559408112 This should probably be a setting on the album -- to allow downloads or now.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." -- John Shedd, Salt from My Attic (1928). My good friend @ozoned shared this quote with me. It's my reminder to not hold my work too tightly, but to be brave and put it out there. It's terrifying. Always. But we can't stay […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

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Stefan @stefan.gardenstate.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

China Found Something Better Than Oil by Maxinomics www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXLGV0Sj0n8

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

Strypey @strypey.mastodon.nzoss.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

Friday has rolled around again, so it's time for another #FollowFriday. Once again, in no particular order, a bunch of accounts I generally enjoy seeing in my feeds; @irix @jrdepriest @trashpanda @deutrino @davemosk @ireneista @DoomsdaysCW @lilithsaintcrow @appassionato @benpate […]

mastodon.nzoss.nz

Original post on mastodon.nzoss.nz

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

@joergi It's fortunate, but coincidental. My domain-choosing algorithm is not that sophisticated. I just found a "vaguely music sounding name that wasn't taken" and went with it :)

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026

I'm thinking *a lot* about "Implicit Feudalism" these days - the idea that mods and admins (in the #Fediverse and elsewhere) are like feudal lords, wielding the only true power in online spaces - the power to silence other's voices. That leaves regular users to be like serfs - bound to the land […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

Lety Does Stuff @lety.doesstuff.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

shoutout to all the open source devs who wake up in the morning and don't choose to be filled with hate underrated sleeper build

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

@silverpill @sovtechfund Two Things: 1. E2EE is real. Initial versions were released at the end of June. Mastodon is funded to build a version next year. You can install and run my code today, or fork it: I'll help you add it to Mitra. 2. And since I built a full LOLA import/export, please […]

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

Did you know that your name on #Bandwagon *is* your domain name? When you share your link Want an example? Check out some #Acousmatic sounds from jeanvoguet.bandwagon.fm

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

@jeanvoguet Yes, 100% Stripe is the only processor I've connected so far, but that was NEVER the final goal. We NEED multiple payment gateways to keep them all honest. I reached out to Mollie over a year ago for this exact reason. At the time, I needed a European company before they'd even […]

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Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

Emelia @thisismissem.social · 02/09/2026

We've been working hard on FedCM to make it work better for the decentralised web! These new designs should enable us to support the Atmosphere (AT Protocol) and Fediverse (ActivityPub) better, including parity with centralised identity providers.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

@seldo This is a great point, thank you! I've settled on "LLM" because 1) it's more technically accurate, and 2) "AI" is a marketing term that's giving the technology far too much credit and human-like agency.

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

wakest ⁂ @fedi.wake.st · 21/08/2026

It's been almost a year since I last worked on this project so glad to announce 6 new icons added to #FediverseIconography at iconography.fediverse.info #μpub by @alemi (fedi.alemi.dev/web/about) #SquidCity by @robey (bot software that runs […] [Original post on social.wake.st]

a screenshot of iconography.fediverse.info showing the icons for url.life, Ibis, μpub, SquidCity, Bandwagon, ties, ProFed and frequency

Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026

@Mastodon great work!

Reposted by Ben Pate 🤘🏻

Mastodon @mastodon.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026

After publishing the results of Discovery Week, we can now give you a first sneak peak at Mastodon 5.0, our next big version. It will bring a new visual look to your screens, a refreshed and calmer layout, as well as a new composer […]

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2025

I'm a software developer working on a bunch of #Fediverse things: #Emissary, #Bandwagon, and bandwagon.fm - with several more in the pipeline. It's a pretty strange mix that doesn't really fit today's Fediverse, but it makes sense when you see the end goal. I got an opportunity at #Fedicon to […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social